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Associated Press

Rescuers pluck hundreds from rising floodwaters in Houston

HOUSTON (AP) — Tropical Storm Harvey sent devastating floods pouring into the nation's fourth-largest city Sunday as rising water chased thousands of people to rooftops or higher ground and overwhelmed rescuers who could not keep up with the constant calls for help. The incessant rain covered much of Houston in turbid, gray-green water and turned streets into rivers navigable only by boat. In a rescue effort that recalled the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, helicopters landed near flooded freeways, airboats buzzed across submerged neighborhoods and high-water vehicles plowed through water-logged intersections. Some people managed with kayaks or canoes or swam. Volunteers joined emergency teams to pull people from their homes or from the water, which was high enough in places to gush into second floors.

The Latest: Army Corps to open dams to stem Houston flooding

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to begin releasing water into Buffalo Bayou from two flood-control dams on the western outskirts of the city. Col. Lars Zetterstrom is commander of the Galveston District of the Corps of Engineers. He says water will be released from the Barker Reservoir and Addicks Reservoir very slowly on Monday morning to prevent uncontrollable flooding of downtown Houston and the Houston Ship Channel. Downtown Houston is 17 miles (27.36 kilometers) downstream from the dams, which were built during the 1940s in response to a 1935 flood that inundated much of downtown area. Zetterstrom says the water contained by the dams is "unparalleled in the dams' history." The waters are rising about 4 inches per hour.

Hurricane Harvey the latest threat to flood-prone Houston

HOUSTON (AP) — Hurricane Harvey slammed into the Texas coast some 175 miles (280 kilometers) from Houston, but the nation's fourth-largest city has never needed a direct strike from a catastrophic storm to flood. Regularly inundated by floodwaters ever since its settlement in the mid-1800s, Houston looked on warily even before Harvey roared ashore. In Houston, the chronic deluges that have repeatedly swamped its neighborhoods are getting worse and more costly — not just for locals, but for federal taxpayers. An Associated Press analysis of government data found last year that if the county that is home to Houston were a state, it would have ranked in the top five or six in every category of repeat flood losses.

Trump meets and tweets as Texas gov praises Harvey response

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump sought to showcase the federal government's response to Hurricane Harvey in a tweetstorm of his own Sunday, marveling over its size like a TV host and announcing a visit to Texas with the natural disaster only just beginning to take its catastrophic toll. In a series of tweets, Trump said his administration was handling its responsibilities well and, in a tangential aside, hawked a book on race and crime in America written by a supporter. "Wow - Now experts are calling #Harvey a once in 500 year flood! We have an all out effort going, and going well!" He later added: "Even experts have said they've never seen one like this!" Harvey is the first major natural disaster of Trump's presidency and a significant test for a White House that is often chaotic and rife with infighting.

Black-clad anarchists storm Berkeley rally, assaulting 4

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — Black-clad anarchists on Sunday stormed into what had been a largely peaceful Berkeley protest against hate and attacked at least four people, including the leader of a politically conservative group who canceled an event a day earlier in San Francisco because of fears violence could break out. The group of more than 100 hooded protesters, with shields emblazoned with the words "no hate" and waving a flag identifying themselves as anarchist , busted through police lines, avoiding security checks by officers to take away possible weapons. Then the anarchists and blended in with a crowd of 2,000 largely peaceful protesters who turned up to demonstrate in a "Rally Against Hate" opposed to a much smaller gathering of right-wing protesters.

Sam Speights' desperate effort to stay alive during Harvey

ROCKPORT, Texas (AP) — Sam Speights takes medication for extreme anxiety and panic attacks. But there's no pill for a hurricane — especially when he ventured into it at the height of its fury. "You don't see the flying debris until it's right in front of you," said Speight. "You can't see it coming." Emergency officials coordinating triage in the coastal city of Rockport, where Hurricane Harvey barreled into Texas, said Sunday they considered it almost miraculous that the number of confirmed deaths from the storm in their area so far is only one person and two in the state of Texas.

Trump prepares to lift limits on military gear for police

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is preparing to restore the flow of surplus military equipment to local law enforcement agencies under a program that had been sharply curtailed by the Obama administration amid an outcry over police use of armored vehicles and other war-fighting gear to confront protesters. Documents obtained by The Associated Press indicate President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order undoing an Obama-era directive that restricted police agencies' access to the gear that includes grenade launchers, bullet-proof vests, riot shields, firearms and ammunition. Trump's order would fully restore the program under which "assets that would otherwise be scrapped can be repurposed to help state, local, and tribal law enforcement better protect public safety and reduce crime," according to the documents.

A first: Drug lowers heart risks by curbing inflammation

For the first time, a drug has helped prevent heart attacks by curbing inflammation, a new and very different approach than lowering cholesterol, the focus for many years. People on the drug also had surprisingly lower cancer death rates, especially from lung cancer. An anti-tumor effect is an exciting possibility, but it needs much more study because the heart experiment wasn't intended to test that. Doctors say the results on the drug, canakinumab (can-uh-KIN-yoo-mab), open a new frontier. Many heart attacks occur in people whose cholesterol is normal and whose main risk is chronic inflammation that can lead to clogged arteries.

With Trump pardon, Arpaio again wiggles out of legal trouble

PHOENIX (AP) — In his 24 years as metro Phoenix's sheriff, Joe Arpaio survived scandals and dodged investigations that would easily have sunk the careers of many politicians. He locked up journalists and made criminal cases against political adversaries who tangled with him, investigated judges and misspent $100 million in jail funds. He let investigations into child rape cases languish because officers were pulled away, in part, to help in Arpaio's immigrant efforts. Arpaio was found to have violated the civil rights of Latinos in a racial-profiling case expected to cost taxpayers $92 million by next summer. His critics felt like they finally won a measure of accountability against the lawman after he was found guilty earlier this month on a misdemeanor contempt charge for flouting the courts in carrying out his signature immigration patrols.

Former Colombia rebels try hand at politics with new party

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — After more than five decades of battle in Colombia's jungles, the nation's largest rebel movement initiated the launch of its political party Sunday at a concrete convention center in the capital, vowing to upend the country's traditional conservatism with the creation of an alternative leftist coalition. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia will transform into a political party under a new, still-to-be-announced name as part of a historic peace deal signed last year. The accords guarantee the ex-combatants 10 seats in Congress and the same funding the state provides to the nation's 13 other political parties, in addition to a half-million dollars in funding to begin a think tank to develop their political ideology.